U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General Audit Division

Transcription

1 OFFICE OF JUSTICE PROGRAMS BUREAU OF JUSTICE ASSISTANCE GRANT ED TO THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General Audit Division Audit Report No. GR November 2009

2 OFFICE OF JUSTICE PROGRAMS BUREAU OF JUSTICE ASSISTANCE GRANT ED TO THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, has completed an audit of the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative Program (SVORI), Grant No RE-CX-0064, in the amount of $2,124,599 (including two supplements) awarded by the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). The purpose of the award was to provide funding to state and local units of government to develop and implement institutional and community corrections-based offender reentry programs through collaborative partnerships with government, social service, faith-based, and community organizations, in order to reduce recidivism, increase public safety, and successfully reintegrate serious and violent offenders back into the community. For more than 20 years, OJP has provided federal leadership in developing the nation's capacity to prevent and control crime, improve the criminal and juvenile justice systems, increase knowledge about crime and related issues, and assist crime victims. As a component of OJP, BJA provides leadership and assistance to local criminal justice programs that improve and reinforce the nation s criminal justice system. The BJA's goals are to: (1) reduce and prevent crime, violence, and drug abuse and (2) improve the way in which the criminal justice system functions. To this end, the SVORI program was developed through a federal partnership between the Departments of Justice, Labor, Health and Human Service, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Veterans Affairs, and Agriculture. The goal of this partnership was to help state and local agencies navigate the complex field of existing state formula and block grants and to assist states in accessing, redeploying, and leveraging the necessary resources to support the components of a comprehensive reentry program. As of 2002, the TDCJ oversaw one of the largest prison systems in the United States and served over 600,000 offenders. The Correctional Institutions Division had over 126,000 individuals incarcerated and over 80,000 paroled offenders under supervision. The Rehabilitation and

3 Programs Division oversaw the programming for all offenders. More than 9,000 offenders were housed in Administrative Segregation. 1 The Parole Division operated over 68 District Parole Offices providing supervision to over 254 Texas counties. Parole supervision is divided into five regions serving East, West, North, Central, and South Texas. Since 1994, the Parole Division has operated eight District Resource Centers that provide services for General Educational Development (GED), cognitive skills, substance abuse, and self-, faith-, and family-based programming to assist offenders towards successful reintegration. The purpose of this audit was to determine whether reimbursements claimed for costs under the grant were allowable, supported, and in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, guidelines, and terms and conditions of the grant, and to determine program performance and accomplishments. The objective of our audit was to review performance in the following areas: (1) internal control environment; (2) drawdowns; (3) grant expenditures; including personnel; (4) budget management and control; (5) financial status and categorical assistance progress reports; (6) grant requirements; (7) program performance and accomplishments; (8) accountable property; and (9) monitoring of contractors. We determined that matching, indirect costs, program income, and monitoring of subgrantees, were not applicable to this grant. As shown in Table 1, the TDCJ was awarded a total of $2,124,599 under the grant. TABLE 1. SERIOUS AND VIOLENT OFFENDER REENTRY PROGRAM GRANT ED TO THE TDCJ NUMBER DATE PROJECT START DATE PROJECT END DATE 2 AMOUNT 2002-RE-CX /22/2002 7/1/2002 6/30/2005 $1,963,107 Supplement 01 9/26/2003 7/1/2002 6/30/2005 $144,492 Supplement 02 9/20/2004 7/1/2002 6/30/2006 $17,000 Total $2,124,599 Source: Office of Justice Programs 1 Administrative Segregation is a non-punitive separation of offenders from the general population for the purpose of maintaining the safety and security of offenders, staff, and the institution. 2 TDCJ requested and was granted a non-monetary extension through 2007 so that an evaluation of the program could be completed. - ii -

4 We examined the TDCJ s accounting records, financial and progress reports, and operating policies and procedures and found the following: TDCJ spent $7,077 in indirect costs that were not authorized by OJP. Although the TDCJ provided us with documents in an attempt to support the statistics shown in the progress reports, the TDCJ did not maintain complete and organized supporting documentation for the performance measures included in progress reports. Two SVORI participants had documentation in their case files indicating that they were not eligible to participate in the SVORI program. These items are discussed in detail in the Findings and Recommendations section of the report. Our audit objectives, scope, and methodology are discussed in Appendix I. - iii -

5 - 4 -